Twenty years ago, policymakers in Colorado and Washington, D.C., knew incredibly little about which workforce development programs worked best. They were conducting policy by guesswork. Now, they don’t have to.
As the U.S. Senate considers reauthorization of the nation’s primary federal workforce legislation, the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, or WIOA, policymakers are engaging in bipartisan dialogue about the importance of innovation and evidence-based strategies to support economic mobility. We call on the Senate to build on the example of programs making a difference in Colorado by advancing a visionary new proposal introduced by Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet to develop and scale similar strategies across the nation.
Over the past 20 years, social entrepreneurs in Colorado and across the U.S. have developed groundbreaking workforce development programs proven by research to dramatically increase participants’ earnings and offer a path to greater opportunity.
Most of these models involve close partnerships with employers, target specific high-demand credentials and jobs, and offer participants strong coaching and wraparound services. As a result, these programs offer a clear path to a stable, well-paying career in sectors like IT, health care, manufacturing and financial services, and provide an incredibly high return on investment for society — as a rigorous body of research now demonstrates.
Learners like Oscar Santos demonstrate how evidence-based programs can pave the path to better jobs. After beginning his career in retail, Oscar enrolled in Colorado-based nonprofit ActivateWork’s tuition-free software engineering program — which is offered in partnership with Per Scholas, a national sectoral training provider backed by multiple studies proving their impact on economic success. After graduating in 2023, Oscar recently landed a paid apprenticeship with Credit Union of Colorado, an ActivateWork employer partner, setting him on the way to a stable, well-compensated career.
Unfortunately, even as our knowledge base has drastically changed, our government’s workforce investments have not. Today, notwithstanding a growing number of encouraging bright spots in Colorado and some other states, the workforce development system dramatically under-invests in training programs proven to help people advance in their careers.
Instead, we continue to over-invest in strategies that only help people find and get a new low-wage job a bit more quickly. As a result, leading evidence-based models like ActivateWork and Per Scholas rely on private philanthropy and employer contributions to expand, slowing the pace of progress.
What needs to change? We should reduce red tape and target funding to what works. WIOA imposes many requirements on state and local governments — but little incentive or assistance to target scarce funding to the most effective providers (and especially those with more intensive programs). At the same time, our workforce system provides limited support for practitioners to develop cutting-edge solutions to serve emerging labor market needs, like the emergence of AI technologies.
The time to fix this is now. As Congress considers the first reauthorization of WIOA in a decade, federal lawmakers can scale effective workforce development approaches like those right here in the Centennial State to help more people and strengthen our economy.
We applaud recent legislation in the House of Representatives that moves in this direction by requiring higher investments in training, making WIOA more performance-based, and prioritizing evidence-based strategies.
The Senate can build on the House’s work. Recently introduced by Sen. Bennet, the Better Jobs through Evidence and Innovation Act would amend WIOA to create a Workforce Development Innovation Fund. This fund would directly finance the expansion of the most proven programs alongside the creation of new strategies in diverse communities.
Critically, this Workforce Development Innovation Fund would build on a time-tested approach. As America Forward’s research shows, federal funds that invest in what works and grow new strategies have produced unparalleled returns on investment.
The federal K-12 Investing in Innovation program, for instance, enabled the Building Assets, Reducing Risks school improvement program to grow from serving a handful of schools to more than 270,000 students nationally while continually demonstrating positive impacts on student achievement in rigorous evaluations. Evidence funds today address a wide range of policy areas, from education to public health to global development — but not workforce development.
Most Coloradans age 25 or older do not hold a bachelor’s degree. Investing in models like ActivateWork and Per Scholas and learners like Oscar can dramatically improve economic mobility and strengthen our nation’s economy.
Too many workers in our nation struggle to secure better jobs, and we must target our limited resources toward the most promising approaches. As Congress undertakes WIOA reauthorization, incorporating the Workforce Development Innovation Fund as proposed by Sen. Bennet should be a top priority to strengthen the workforce and the economy and to increase opportunities for people across the country.
Helen Young Hayes is the founder and CEO of ActivateWork, a Colorado nonprofit recruiting, training, and coaching firm that drives economic mobility through launching tech careers.
Chase Sackett is policy director at America Forward, the nonpartisan policy initiative of New Profit.
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